1 Peter 4:18 Commentary and Bible Study

Then there is a quotation from Proverbs to consolidate the point. It is from Proverbs 11.31 but it is not exactly as you will read it there, because Peter uses a translation of the Old Testament in Greek that was done nearly 300 years before the coming of Christ, which takes the sense, rather than the literal meaning. As for the righteous, it is hard for us when the world attacks us and reviles us, but how much harder, when the world in its turn is judged by Almighty God? That is the sense of the verse.‘If the righteous scarcely be saved’ – ‘are saved only with difficulty’, because the Christian life has its difficulties. Peter puts the matter this way so that he can bring the emphasis where he intends: on the hopeless situation of the ungodly man, the sinful man. This actually is said for the encouragement of Christians, for God will not ignore what they suffer at the hands of the wicked, even though he seems to stand by when terrible things are done to them. The argument is based on the fairness of God and on the comprehensive nature of his justice. He does not judge one case and ignore another; he does not allow the wicked to get away with evil scot-free, while focusing his attention on the misdemeanours of his people. So then, if God has acted in the case of those who have been redeemed and justified, how can he fail to act against those who do not know him and despise his commandments? How can he fail to act much more severely towards the rebellious? There is a right time for all things. In this life the righteous – those to whom righteousness has been imputed – are tried and tested and judged for their sins with judgments which are designed to correct and train them and which have a blessed outcome in view. The wicked are to some extent abandoned to their sin, though not entirely. But in the world to come, the situation will be reversed. The righteous will have finished their training and will possess a holy nature incapable of sin; they receive the reward of their good works. The wicked however, who were ignored for a time, will receive the full weight of God’s punishment without remedy. ‘Where shall the ungodly appear?’ The word ‘ungodly’ translates a Greek word which means irreverent. The word translated ‘godly’ in the New Testament comes from paganism. It refers to people who have a reverent attitude to the gods, and it is used in our New Testament of Christians. The godly are people who worship God with reverence and care and godly fear and respect. So ‘the ungodly’ doesn't mean ‘the evil’; it means no reverence for God, no worship of him. Where will the sinner appear when the final separation comes and they have to give an account to God for rejection of the gospel, no homage to God, no reverence, and all the record of sin throughout their lives?